Features

Bettie Allen Meriwether, owner of Allen Dale Farm in Shelby County, took great pride in knowing that her farm had been in her family since its establishment in 1795 by Robert Polk Allen. Her great grandmother, Ann Allen, widow of John Allen of Frederick County, Virginia, had been buried in the family graveyard on the property in 1805.

She valued the land, having fought a successful legal battle (1885-1889) to wrest the farm from control of her brother, George Baylor Allen, whose plans to mortgage the property would have undoubtedly been tantamount to its sale.

The name Vintage Voodoo invokes old-world charm in New Orleans, back alleys and dark streets.

But the Shelbyville-based band - consisting of guitarist Michael Whisman, lead singer Rick Willard, drummer Patrick Jacobs, guitarist Bobby Hardaway and bassist Greg Viergutz, the only member not from Shelbyville - said that's not quite the case.

“I had no idea, I can tell you I was just completely bowled over.”
Those are the words of Shelby County Attorney Hart Megibben, who Thursday was named 2011 Outstanding County Attorney by the office of the state attorney general.

Megibben, accompanied by his family, attended the Prosecutor’s Conference in Louisville, where the award was announced. Two recipients are chosen each year, and the other was John Estill of Mason County.

Megibben said he never expected to receive such an award and that was very honored.

Some folks in Bagdad are trying to keep a light on for you, but they’re having a little trouble with the bill.

The city lights in Bagdad – all 28 of them – are funded by annual assessments of the residents, but lately there have been some antes not being upped and the fund to pay the bill has gotten a little thin.

So members of the Bagdad Ruritan Club are trying to collect money to pay the $225-a-month bill from Kentucky Utilities until the end of the year, when they hope to help form a better solution.

His wish to spend his 21st birthday water skiing at Guist Creek Lake came off without a hitch, to the delight of his family, who accompanied him from Columbus, Ohio, where Jacob Brewer lives, and Metro Louisville on his special day.

“Do I model the characters in my stories after my relatives? Well, I can tell you that I can see my aunts and uncles in my characters, but they can’t see themselves,” said Gurney Norman at a presentation at the public library Thursday night.

Norman, a well-known author, popular for his stories about Appalachia, spoke to a crowd of about 30 people who gathered to hear him speak in one of the library’s Spend An Evening With An Author series.

Whether you’re into science fiction, do-it-yourself projects around the house, or biographies of famous people, a book sale at the public library this week offers all these topics and many, many more, all at a discounted cost.

What would it be like to be homeless, to have no place to sleep except for a cardboard box?

That’s what an unusual fundraiser for a local men’s shelter is all about, to let people experience that for themselves first hand, said Lee Bean, founder and operator of The Open Door of Hope.

Bean has been gathering empty appliance boxes donated from local businesses and will use them next month at a fundraising event he will hold in the parking lot of the Shelby County Public Library on Sept. 16.

Being broken up with by your girlfriend in elementary school is always a traumatic event, especially when she bluntly tells you that you would go better with her cousin, whom you don’t even really know at the time.

That’s how I met Jen, my friend Carrie Miller’s cousin, when I was about 10.

If I could sum her up in one word, it would simply be funny…with awkward as a close second. She was a lanky, tall tomboy with the most outrageous personality ever.

A little water, biodegradable cleaning solution and elbow grease can go a long way.

And by looking at the success of the Friends of Grove Hill Cemetery's first Restoration and Preservation Workshop, the 150-year-old cemetery is in for a big lift.

On June 24, the group had Ann Johnson with the Kentucky Historical Society give a morning workshop and used that information, along with the proper tools provided by Johnson, in a restoration project at the cemetery.

My last column reported the sinking by a Japanese submarine of the aircraft carrier USS Wasp on Sept. 15, 1942. Marine Capt. John W. Kennedy Jr., who three months before that had relieved me as commanding officer of the Marine detachment on Wasp, had gone down with the ship.

During World War II, capital ships, such as aircraft carriers and battleships, included in their crews a Marine detachment carrying three officers and about 82 enlisted men. Their principal functions were to provide the ship’s guards, man 5-inch guns and provide landing parties when needed.

Despite a drizzly, rainy and grim morning, the skies cleared up and the weather heated up enough for community members to enjoy fireworks, snow cones and cotton candy for the annual Independence Day celebration at Lake Shelby on Monday night. The crowd was small when the gates opened, but as the evening went on and the shadows got longer, more and more people arrived to see what everyone wants to see on the Fourth of July — fireworks. They also enjoyed dancing and listening to the musical numbers of Leo Knight and the Moonlighters as they enjoyed the night’s festivities.